A public prosecutor has cleared former documenta CEO Annette Kulenkampff of criminal wrongdoing, following a USD$6.3 million overspend on the exhibition’s unprecendented two-venue 2017 edition. The investigation was launched into the budget shortfall after members of Germany’s far-right Alternativ für Deutschland party filed a lawsuit against Kulenkampff and curator Adam Szymczyk, accusing them of embezzlement and mismanaging public funds. But the prosecutor found that the former CEO did not act to deliberately endanger funds and that there was no evidence of criminal activity. They also noted that cost-cutting measures would have resulted in a decline in visitors and greater losses. ‘The mere fact that some projects don’t comply with the tastes of some observers or – in their view – are not suited to the goal of promoting the event, doesn’t meet the conditions for criminal breach of trust,’ the prosecutor said. In a statement, Kulenkampff said: ‘With this decision, the path is now clear for a continued successful future of documenta,’ also adding that, ‘It was and is most important to me to avert damage to documenta.’ Kulenkampff left her position last November, a year before her contract was due to expire. She was recently named director of the German Institute for Urban Design in Dortmund.

Crisis talks have been held by UK gallery heads regarding declining attendance figures. National Gallery board meeting minutes revealed that a 16% annual decline was related to a loss in ‘British visitors’, with core south-eastern and London visitors singled out as missing groups. The British Museum reportedly lost around 200,000 visitors when compared against the same three-month period of last year. The National Portrait Gallery and Tate Britain also suffered significant visitor losses, with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London bucking the trend. The Timeshas the story.

Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina has been smuggled out of Russia to attend the Edinburgh Fringe festival despite a ban on her travel. Aloykhina was initially told by Russian security services that she was unable to leave the country at Moscow’s Domodevo airport. Russian news agencies later reported that Alyokhina had failed to complete a community service punishment for her participation in recent protests. Despite the ban, the artist and activist drove more than 1,000 km through Belarus to Lithuania and then boarded a flight to the UK. In a statement, the punk feminist collective said: ‘Pussy Riot founder Maria refused to be captive and silenced’. Alyokhina will join her bandmates to perform a show and promote her book Riot Days.

In appointments and movements news:Naomi Beckwith has been promoted to senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago – she has been with the institution since 2011 and previously worked as a curator at the Studio Museum in Harlem; Atlanta’s High Museum of Art has added new board members including hip-hop artist and Grammy winner Killer Mike, in addition to community activist Jean Hanges, Georgia-Pacific executive David Park and Interscope Records VP Keinon Johnson; the Studio Museum in Harlem has named Legacy Russell as associate curator of exhibitions; and Hope Alswang has announced that she will retire from her directorship of Florida’s Norton Museum of Art in March 2019.

In awards and grants news: the College Art Association is launching a fund for academic travel – made possible through an anonymous donation of USD$1 million – which will offer grants of up to USD$10,000 to allow art history faculties and students to see shows related to their study; and artist Rosa Johan Uddoh is the inaugural recipient of the Liverpool Biennial fellowship – the year-long fellowship, founded by Liverpool John Moores University, awards artists a GBP£5,000 cash prize and access to university resources, studio and exhibition space.